After a wild weekend in which the all-star catcher vetoed a trade to the Cleveland Indians, Jonathan Lucroy has a new home: Arlington, Texas.
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Lucroy is hitting.299 with 13 home runs and 50 RBI for the Brewers this season.
In return, Texas gets Lucroy, 30, a two-time All-Star who will have a very reasonable $5.25 million club option for 2017. Instead, we will wait and see if the front office can pull off a trade that will make us excited for the teams future.
Lucroy acknowledged the trade in a tweet on Monday. They have been relying on the trio of Robinson Chirinos, Bobby Wilson and Bryan Holaday behind the plate. Since taking over, Jeffress has gone 2-2 with a 2.27 ERA, and 26 saves in 43.2 innings of work. He won’t unseat Sam Dyson for the closer role, but getting another late-inning guy pushes everyone else back and makes the group as a whole better.
The Rangers sit at 62-44 and hold a six-game lead over the Houston Astros in the American League West.
Milwaukee traded Smith, 1-3 with a 3.68 ERA in 27 appearances this season, earlier in the day, moving him to the San Francisco Giants for pitching prospect Phil Bickford and 26-year-old catcher Andrew Susac.
Brinson was the Rangers’ first round draft pick out of Coral Springs High School in 2012, ranks 30 on Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100 prospect list and 21 overall on the MLB Pipeline Prospects list, as well as fifth in Top 10 Outfielders. Ortiz, a 20-year-old starting pitcher now in Double-A, was a first-round pick in 2014 and was ranked 64th entering 2016 by BA. Ortiz has combined to go 4-6, 3.48 (26 ER/67.1 IP) over 16 games/14 starts with Frisco and High-A High Desert in his third professional season. The team has the second most wins in baseball, only behind the Chicago Cubs with 63. The Rangers also sent minor-league right-handers Erik Swanson and Nick Green to the Yankees. He sports a 2-2 record with a 2.22 ERA with 35 strikeouts and 11 walks.
Last year, Milwaukee had a deal fall through with the Mets that would have sent Carlos Gomez to NY. Oritz was promoted to AA Frisco this year, and was 3-2 with a 2.60 ERA for the Roughriders in 7 starts. Playing for Class A Advanced Lynchburg, the 20-year-old Mejia has a 42-game hitting streak. Hill, who signed a $6 million, one-year contract with Oakland during the offseason, is on the disabled list with a pesky blister on the middle finger of his throwing hand that hasn’t healed.
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The Mets also got pitcher Jon Niese, who spent his first eight years in NY, from Pittsburgh for reliever Antonio Bastardo.
